Abstract

PURPOSE:

The major aims of this study were to evaluate the effect of retinal ischemia by behavioral testing and histologic analyses, to visualize ischemia-induced changes of cortical activity by optical imaging of intrinsic signals, and to test the therapeutic effectiveness of simvastatin.

METHODS:

Retinal ischemia was induced monocularly by elevating intraocular pressure. Visual function was tested behaviorally with a virtual reality optomotor system, physiologically with optical imaging of intrinsic signals, and histologically by counting the surviving retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the same animal.

CONCLUSIONS:

This specific combination of behavioral measurements of visual function, cortical activity imaging, and histologic analyses is ideally suited to follow ischemia-induced changes and to monitor the effect of therapeutic approaches. Statin therapy may be a promising pharmacologic tool for the treatment of acute retinal ischemia in particular because, in our study, simvastatin was applied after ischemia, a treatment regimen with much greater clinical relevance than preventive administration, as in previous studies.